Wednesday, August 3, 2011

Denver: Day 1

We had to get going earlier than I’d like on Wednesday morning. Jared’s class started at 8:30 a.m., and we had to have him there a few minutes before that so he could register. We dropped him off and then came back to the hotel to take care of everyone and get Daniel fed. Having an infant who eats every 2.5 hours makes traveling a little tricky. When the mom has to pump milk, it makes it even more tricky! We planned most everything around feeding and pumping times. I also had to go deal with our room situation. I was ready for a fight, so I went with my fists up. But the lady at the desk was really nice and actually explained everything and found a suite to get us into. Yahoo!!

By the time we were all ready to go, it was around 10 a.m., so I decided to try to find a park to play at until Jared finished at noon. Thank goodness for the internet, and thank goodness for WiFi!! We would have been completely lost without those conveniences. I found a couple possibilities for parks that were near where Jared’s classes were, and we hit the jackpot with the first park. It had a great playground with plenty of shade and lots of fun toys.

Finding a park became our morning routine while we were here. I learned from this first park that trying to take pictures while managing 5 kids (one who needed to be fed) just wasn’t going to work. So this is it for the park photos!

While we were at the park, the hotel called to let us know that our new room was ready. We picked Jared up and went back to the hotel to make the grand switch. Thankfully it was just down the hall from where we already were, so it was a quick change. As soon as the door closed (we left keys in the room), Emily realized she had left the case for her glasses in the nightstand. Feeling quite sheepish, we went back down to the front desk and got another key. Case retrieved and everyone happy!

After a late lunch, and a little relaxing in the hotel, we headed to the Denver Children’s Museum. It was around 4 p.m., and we quickly realized that taking the freeway was a huge mistake. Bumper to bumper for as far as we could see. It took about twice as long as we had planned (nap time!), but we made it. And I’m so glad we went…it was awesome!

We LOVED the bubble making area!

Caleb got a soggy foot from stepping into the “moat” of bubble water around the platform where Emily is standing. After a few minutes walking around, he was sporting bubbles all over his sandal! (Of course he’s wearing his sandals on the wrong feet, and don’t even get me started about the whole socks-with-sandals look!)

The creation station was pretty neat too. Yes – those are real tools! I was shocked that we walked away from this area without any injuries!

There was an area for grocery shopping…our kids had the entire inventory of stuff in their baskets. There was also a dramatic play area and an engineering area. In the interest of keeping this post to a minimum (haha!), here’s a roundup of a few more favorite photos.

After we played to our hearts’ content, we hit the road for some dinner. Then we visited the Colorado Mills Mall, which boasts more than 1 million square feet of shop space!! I’ve never seen a mall so big. It was so big that the different areas of it were called “neighborhoods” and there was a giant carousel in the food court! And the reason we visited this mall? The Lego store, which ended up being a bit of a disappointment (for Jared…the kids loved it).